Ah, America.

[pyat]

Currently occupying two foreign nations, dealing with ongoing violence in both, with a worrisome economy, a major port city still crippled by natural disaster, more than 1 in 100 adults currently in prison, tax rolls supporting a defense budget larger than that all the other nations of the world combined, spending more per capita of state money on healthcare than any other nation yet no socialized healthcare and a declining life expectancy, serious questions about the conduct of the military and CIA, the perpetrator of 9/11 basically forgotten, and there's an election in a few months.

And of course, the most important topics in that election are gay marriage and abortion.

Comments

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

seriously? 1% of it's citizens in prison. wow.

how does canada stack up to that any idea?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

0.107% of the population in 2006, sez Google.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

That's 1% of _adult residents_, for 2.3 million. 1% of all citizens of all ages would be about 2.9 million.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

To put this in perspective, the City of Toronto has a population of 2.48 million.

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking they're overly sensitive about what "crime" is, or they have some serious social issues O.o. That's insane!! Where do they keep them all???

Aaaaiiieeee!

[thebitterguy]

What percentage of youths are in prison?

[conjurdude.livejournal.com]

Yes, the "And so in conclus-OH MY GOD! What's that behind the rosebush?!" school of politics...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Good lord! Is that a gay man aborting a fetus with a WMD?

[conjurdude.livejournal.com]

Yes, and reading Harry Potter whilst doing so!

[relee.livejournal.com]

I worry about my American friends all the time. Will they die of a common illness? Will they be crushed by the secret police? Will they get shot in one of their tens of thousands of random murders?

So far only two of them have. One to a semi-common illness, one with questions of conspiracy and possible murder. But what about the rest? Are they going to be next? They tell me about their lives and they seem so emperiled, but casual. It's so natural for them to be in danger, they don't realize that things don't have to be that way.

[kianir.livejournal.com]

I realize it doesn't have to be this way. But escape is only feasible for the well-heeled -- who are those least needing to do so.

I don't have health insurance, or savings, nor do I make anything close to a living wage, and I'm supporting two + pets. Yet I know there are much worse off. Hell, I have coworkers who are much worse off. Easily half of them are on foodstamps, while working n+1 jobs to keep their homes.

I find myself wishing, at times, that McCain gets elected, because the further into this abyss we descend, the more people will realize it's kinda dark down here. I don't, honestly, know what will make the US citizenry wake up, if not their empty stomachs and the lack of a roof over their head.

[relee.livejournal.com]

*shakes her head* The way I see it, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. A president isn't going to change that.

The situation may be pathetic but the people are satisfied. They won't change things untill it becomes unbearable. Untill then, while bearable, it will be painful. And when it becomes unbearable, there will be horror and pain and death and all those terrible things that come as a part of change. Then... who knows what will happen?

As long as the dog is satisfied, he doesn't mind the leash or the cheap food, and he can even endure the cruel master's whip. But no matter if he is satisfied, I feel sorry for the abused dog.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

It's not that bad in most places, but the US is so large and heterogeneous that you can't broadly generalize and the worst places tend to be very bad so they drag down the average for everyone. Montana, for example, is very tranquil but there's less than a million people there.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Mostly I'm worried about my friends. There's a limited scope I can handle at once. The world is huge, and full of both joy and suffering, but only a small fraction of it is 'my world'. My friends suffer in some of the worst places in the states, and even the ones in some of the nicer parts are emperiled.

[used_songs]

I am embarrassed to be from the US. I hate this place. We (at least collectively) are stupid sheep.

[archai.livejournal.com]

That's not just us. Everywhere in the world right now, you can look around, and see stupid sheep. One might successfully argue that in parts of the UK right now, the sheep are even dumber.

No, we just have particularly twisted shepherds.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I feel precisely the same way. My attitudes are vastly alien compared to those of most Americans.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

why stay, then?

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

You know, we hear more news about China down here than we ever do about Canada. It's like you're all right next door, and no one notices. Unless it's buying meds.

We can't really help where we were born you know... There's no place else will take us either.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the American establishment is a bit embarrassed at how well Canada manages to do, in spite of the fact that we're doing everything wrong according to their wisdom. We don't routinely carry guns, we regulate (some of) our markets, we have a fair number of unions and other protections for labour, we have socialized acute and routine health care, we let gay people marry and we pay moms to stay home with their babies - so many things that many Americans see as the End of the World as We Know It, and they've worked pretty well, next door to them, for a long time. It's embarrassing, so they only talk about Canada when they can point out how one of those things we do isn't working perfectly.

[nikonraccoon.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to escape... just need to get a few thousand saved up... airfare, visa, shipping of my stuff.... it's hard to get out of the US. But I'm working on it.

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

File Under: "We Know, We Know (Sigh)"

preaching to the choir

[paka.livejournal.com]

I'd once heard a story about a rancher being interviewed about killing coyotes. He said that ranchers deal with floods, droughts, disease, and a batch of other things they can't control - but the coyote is the only issue ranchers face that they can actually shoot or poison. I think American citizens work largely the same way; we've given up being able to take action on the big stuff, plus we're being led other directions.

Trust me on this one. I've protested and petitioned about issues from Bush's war in Iraq to Dirk Kempthorne's apparent private war on the environment, and yet it never feels like you're getting anywhere. Whereas if I say "everyone deserves the right to fall in love and marry as they choose," I know that there'll be at least five of my fellow citizens backing me up, and probably at least four of my fellow citizens vehemently opposed.

So the stuff we scream about is the only stuff we seem able to affect, as petty and pointless as it is. The politicians are all too happy to distract us with big-ticket emotionally laden social issues when they can't produce any actual real results on a real level that makes things better for our finances, our future health, our chance of getting sick or getting old or having kids. It's very easy to follow along.

[paka.livejournal.com]

And yes, we're dumb fucks.

I lived through Reagan, remember? I SAW the US governed by warmongering saber-rattling that claimed to be small-government while it dismantled the last remnants of our "war on poverty," bashed the fuck out of trade unions, bankrupted small farms, and racked up the national debt. Heck, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior is on record as having said nothing environmental mattered because Jesus was gonna show up and resolve everything soon. This was LOUSY government. Less than ten years later and Americans idealize it as this wonderful thing no matter how dissatisfied they are with Dubya. So in 20 years or 50 years or so, if I stay here, will I be seeing Americans do the same dumbassed things where the Bush Administration could do no wrong and they want a repeat?

Technically I could get to Britain whenever. I'm lucky that way; I fall short of the qualifications needed to move to Canada. But the USA is all I've ever really known. This is home. And I kinda still have that Scouts/Civics Class/Co-op background where this is my community, and I should stay and make sure it prospers. But this is no country to grow old or get sick or have kids, not if we keep going this way. I have to wonder whether I'm doing the equivalent of all my relatives who stayed in Europe because Ukraine was home or because Germans were decent people who'd eventually come to their senses.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

I was particularly amused by George W's comments towards Russia regarding Georgia, which went along the lines of it not being OK to be a bully, or to use your army in any way to influence a sovereign nation.
!!